I've always felt that Alices Adventures in wonderland has so very much to offer. All one need do is examine the authority figures presented, The Queen of Hearts, The king of hearts, the dutchess, the red queen and the white queen. They are a series of rather poignant archetypes for those who posses power, ranging from those who have gone mad from their disconect to greater reality, those who demand and take what they want through bloodshed "Off with her head!", and those who have grown glazed over with indifference. Also a number of the poems in the story are based on victorian moral lesson poems that children were forced to recite. He plays on this fantasticaly by skewring, or at times inverting the original given moral for one that is, in every instance more practical and far more entertaining. I would suggest comparing Caroll's poem, "the voice of the lobster", with the victorian moral poem "The sluggared" . Or "The spider and the fly" with Caroll's "The Whiting and the snail". I would love to hear what you thought of "The Wallrace and the carpenter". I'll certainly look into your recomendation. I've been meaning to see more of Mr. Sagan's work.

I feel like the bible is more of a series of moral tails then an alternative to science. The people who wrote the bible were ignorant of certain scientific facts, and fanatics in this day and age interpret that as reason to deny even the most plain sight scientific discoveries, In this way I think your choice would be good, to afirm natural truths. But the problem with the bible as a series of moral tales, rather then an alternative to science, is that the morality behind it is awful. It is writen by people of power to encourage subserviance to the already subserviant. Thats why I selected books that each in one way or another show that things are never as they seem, that authority is a mechanism of control, not salvation, and that expanding ones self and pushing forward is essential to growth.

Since I look at the Bible as a pseudo-history book, I would suggest books such as:

The World's History, by Howard Spodek,

or

History of the World, edited by William Nassau Weech

Those are books that give a summary of the development of the "civilized" world and hopeful encourage the reader to investigate more recently written history books that are more detailed on specific topics.

Or for that matter Just Pretend by Dan Barker. (That's a bit of an in joke, for those not in the know, some people in Canada are suing because their school district allows the gideons to hand out bibles to 5th graders. They got their district to write a policy stating all comers with materials to distribute would be welcome (then of course--failed to abide by the policy). But the complainers offered to distribute "Just Pretend".

I know we are just having fun with this. But I will pretend it's serious for a moment.

If someone was serious and being really literal-minded when asking the question, I'd say "nothing" and "comma damnit!" NO book written by people (which would be all of them) is as timeless as the bible purports to be, and shouldn't be enshrined as something deserving respect for all time; imagine science textbooks, copyright 2012,still regarded as bible replacements in 2212. Hell we already have to fight idiots following 3000 year old "science" and arguing against everything we've learned since then.

How about the Hindu Vedas? Maybe they weren't in a form (pages, binding) we would call a "book," but they are far older. The Jewish Canon goes back about 1800 years BC. The Vedas go back at least 5000 years BC and may actually go back as far as 7000 BC.